Victims of their success, the village districts of Thionville, more precisely Beuvange and Volkrange, must slow down their urban development. A choice assumed by the mayor of Thionville. Pierre Cuny advocates a delay in new constructions.
Jean-Michel Cavalli – Today at 05:00
“We have to slow down. » In the urban planning field, this is not the conduct that we spontaneously attribute to Pierre Cuny. Rare are his interventions in which his demographic aims are not expressed. The mayor is regularly described as a go-getter. His supporters praise his builder side, while his opponents favor the term concreter. In the end, what does the qualifiers matter: let’s just remember that it aims to place Thionville, by 2030, in the orbit of cities with 50,000 inhabitants.
This race forward, which notably provides for the establishment of 2000 housing units on both banks of the Moselle, cannot mask a strategy according to the person concerned: “We have a very clear vision of the development of the city. We do not build in an anarchic way, everything is thought out,” explains the elected official. Proof of this is the slowdown in the cycle of new constructions initiated in the western part of the city. It is more particularly in Volkrange and Beuvange that “we must slow down”, to use the mayor’s expression. Put an end to this spectacular facelift which has recently rejuvenated the features of these two village districts.
“Everything came out of the ground at once”
Large residential areas, mainly composed of individual houses, have sprung up very recently. This boost would respond to the new wave of owners looking for outdoor space. A legacy of the covid period which is reflected, in the figures, by 300 new housing units erected since 2018: “Everything came out of the ground at once, image Tiago Mateus, director of town planning at the City of Thionville. Covid has slowed down the monitoring of files submitted ahead of the crisis. »
This mass of dormant projects has joined the natural flow of building permit submissions in these very popular sectors. A real wave which is causing, today, a stated desire to delay the development of these neighborhoods: “We must find a fair balance between welcoming populations while ensuring the services that go with it,” indicates Tiago Mateus. By services, let us first mention childcare. As such, the construction of a new after-school facility in Volkrange, budgeted at €2 million, should help rebalance the balance.
A project revised downwards
Before the highly anticipated delivery of this equipment, the municipality will use dialogue to contain the ambitions of the developers. The project to develop a building of 24 housing units, in the Beuvange sector, constitutes a significant example of this new situation.
In 2022, an action led by the Vivre aux 3 Villages association called for the pure and simple abandonment of this collective. After discussions, the operator reduced the size to 12 lots. A good way to preserve the village spirit that characterizes these neighborhoods, “but also to preserve a supply of housing essential for the vitality of these sectors. The turnover in apartments is, on average, seven years while in houses, it reaches 25-30 years, explains the head of department. To guarantee a sufficient number of students in schools, we also need this type of construction which makes it possible to accommodate families with young children. Obviously, we will come back to it later even if currently, we are rather engaged in a cycle of…” procrastination.
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